💥 New: meet The Corral! 🧲

Calling all aspiring entrepreneurs, current leaders/operators, and former founders.

I wrote you a few weeks ago about a little community for aspiring founders/entrepreneurs, current leaders/operators, and former founders like myself.

I’m sick of the member’s only clubs that want to charge you $12,000 so you can hop on a Zoom once a quarter, applaud each other for your pristine LinkedIns and then send you to expensive breakfasts where you can all talk about how great you are together. The people who need founder-first communities can’t afford them, the existing exec “clubs” end up being more about peacocking and less about earnest— and honest— connection.

When I told you in the post above about my idea, your response was super positive.

So we’re going to give this a try… welcome to…

What is The Corral?…

A community of former founders, current founders, and even potentially aspiring founders, where we can actually have a real, supportive and honest dialogue about the shitty parts— and let’s be real, there are a lot of shitty parts. All these smart, interesting people are going through the same hard things, often at the same hard time— and no one is really talking about it.

The Corral is a closed group where we do just that. No monstrous time commitment or unrealistic expectations or exorbitant fees just to participate— think manageable commitment for a finite period of time with meaningful network connection. Leave with new friends and mentors in your network and insight about your past, present and future journey that you didn’t have before.

Who is it for?…

This could be a good fit for you if:

• You are walking away from your business, looking to sell your business, or beginning to contemplate your next chapter and need to lean on folks who have done all of the above

• You’re just getting started with your business/founder journey and want moral support and/or advice from seasoned veterans— without hiring a pricy exec coach

• You’re lonely as a solo operator or remote leader and want to feel some community with your peers

• You’re a former founder navigating a transition back into the workforce or working for someone else

• You’re a founder who desperately needs to vent about their investors— or get fundraising tips from your peers!

• “Networking” grosses you out and feels transactional, but connection is still an important value for you

How does it work?…

You give me a little context so I can form a “pod” that help align you with the folks who will be most helpful to you, and who you can be most helpful to. We have guided conversations in our pods or together as a group once weekly for 6 weeks, and a broader chat that you can participate in to whatever extent is helpful to you.

These things usually go off the rails when:

• There isn’t a sense of safety in peer groups— you don’t trust the community not to blab about anything you share

• There are bad apples who enter with not the best intentions and ruin the vibe for everyone else

• The time commitment is unrealistic and so after a few weeks you fall off

• The Slack gets spammy and full of sales pitches or unhelpful asks, so you delete it

• The vibe is more Soho House and membership club than it is actual meaningful connection and value exchange

Here’s how I’m preventing that from happening:

• I’ll craft smaller peer groups with great intention and act as steward of our mutual values and sense of safety

• We all commit to a cone of silence and do not share what we discuss within The Corral

• You are committing a maximum of an hour a week for 6 weeks— that’s it! You can spend more time if you wish, but I’m not asking that of you

• Slack is an additive channel, not a primary channel

• This is a closed group “beta” limited to good actors with the right intent— not a member’s club you put on your LinkedIn or any sort of flex

In the future, if this beta/pilot goes well, I’d love to introduce events and an IRL component for our closed groups… but let’s not put cart before horse. :) If you’re a brand or business that would be interested in funding or sponsoring perks or events for a community of founders, hit my line!

How can I join?…

To that point above, I’m going to limit the “beta” of The Corral— basically a pilot to see if this works!— to a smaller group that I can spend a little more time getting close to and under the hood with. That’s a labor of love, and one I’m glad to take on, but for the sake of my time and yours, I’m going to gatekeep a bit here. Right now, only paid subscribers to First Rodeo can apply. That’s a $5 barrier to entry— before you get inflamed— so not extremely egregious for entrepreneurs for whom this would be a really valuable resource.

If this is of interest to you, link to apply is below the paygate! We’re going to kick this off on March 6th, so if you’re interested, please jump in ASAP.

If this is not of interest to you, never fear, The Corral will not replace any of our regularly scheduled programming. Of course I’d love for you to share this with the folks your community for whom you think it might be of actual value!